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How Much Does Health Insurance Cost?
In 2023, the average cost of Health Insurance is $644 a month for Individuals and $1,851 a month for Families. The cost varies by age, how many people are on the health insurance plan, lifestyle factors (such as smoking or tobacco use), and even location.
In addition to the monthly premium, people would also need to consider the costs of deductibles and coinsurance.
What is a Health Insurance Premium?
The health insurance premium is the amount you pay for your health insurance every month.
What is a Health Insurance Deductible?
The health insurance deductible is the amount of covered expenses that the insured must pay before a plan or health insurance contract will start to pay for any medical expenses.
What is a Health Insurance Coinsurance?
Most health insurance policies require the insured to pay some portion of the health care bills. A typical arrangement is that the health insurance company pays 80% and the insured pays 20%, up to $3,000 of covered expenses after the insured has paid their deductible. After the insured hits the maximum out-of-pocket limit, the health insurance pays 100% of covered expenses during the remainder of the calendar year, up to any applicable annual benefit or lifetime maximum of the policy.
Factors that Impact Health Insurance Rates
The cost of health insurance is determined by multiple factors:
Age: Health care costs for each person is set according to age, with rates increasing as they get older. There is usually a flat rate cost for children under the age of 18, but some plans will have a price increase for children once they turn 15 years old.
Location: Each state and county has their own selection of health insurance policies and prices available to them. Two people in the same state with the same policy can have different Health Insurance costs based on which county they live in. Health insurance in West Virginia and South Dakota costs an average of more than $800 a month. Health insurance in Georgia, New Hampshire and Maryland costs an average of about $375 a month.
Number of People on the Plan: The total cost of your health insurance plan is determined by how many people are covered on the plan. A family will typically pay more than double the monthly cost that a single individual would pay.
Smoking and Tobacco Use: If you smoke or use tobacco, you can pay up to 50% more on the cost of your Health Insurance, depending on which state you live in. For example, the state of California and New York don’t allow the cost of health insurance to increase based on tobacco use.
Average Cost of Health Insurance In Each State
Where you live is one of the primary factors that determines the cost of your health insurance. The following chart shows the average monthly and annual health insurance premiums. These prices are based on a 40 year old individual. The prices do not include the additional costs of health insurance deductibles, copays or coinsurance.
| State | Monthly Cost (Average) | Annual Cost (Average) |
|---|---|---|
| West Virginia | $831 | $9,972 |
| South Dakota | $811 | $9,732 |
| Wyoming | $764 | $9,168 |
| Vermont | $760 | $9,120 |
| Louisiana | $728 | $8,736 |
| Alaska | $715 | $8,580 |
| New York | $713 | $8,556 |
| Nebraska | $685 | $8,220 |
| Oklahoma | $635 | $7,620 |
| North Carolina | $634 | $7,608 |
| Missouri | $620 | $7,440 |
| Florida | $585 | $7,020 |
| Alabama | $579 | $6,948 |
| Nevada | $578 | $6,936 |
| Arizona | $577 | $6,924 |
| Texas | $575 | $6,900 |
| Connecticut | $564 | $6,768 |
| Utah | $563 | $6,756 |
| Illinois | $556 | $6,672 |
| Delaware | $555 | $6,660 |
| California | $537 | $6,444 |
| New Jersey | $537 | $6,444 |
| Massachusetts | $535 | $6,420 |
| Kansas | $534 | $6,408 |
| Iowa | $533 | $6,396 |
| North Dakota | $524 | $6,288 |
| Idaho | $516 | $6,192 |
| Wisconsin | $514 | $6,168 |
| Virginia | $512 | $6,144 |
| Mississippi | $511 | $6,132 |
| Tennessee | $508 | $6,096 |
| Pennsylvania | $498 | $5,976 |
| Hawaii | $490 | $5,880 |
| Ohio | $490 | $5,880 |
| New Mexico | $480 | $5,760 |
| Montana | $479 | $5,748 |
| Kentucky | $478 | $5,736 |
| Oregon | $475 | $5,700 |
| Maine | $465 | $5,580 |
| Washington | $443 | $5,316 |
| South Carolina | $436 | $5,232 |
| Indiana | $433 | $5,196 |
| Arkansas | $419 | $5,028 |
| Rhode Island | $413 | $4,956 |
| Michigan | $410 | $4,920 |
| Colorado | $409 | $4,908 |
| Minnesota | $389 | $4,668 |
| Maryland | $365 | $4,380 |
| New Hampshire | $360 | $4,320 |
| Georgia | $309 | $3,708 |
What if you can’t afford Health Insurance?
The cost of health insurance is going up every year, and more Americans are finding it harder to pay for decent health insurance themselves or for their family. It shouldn’t be this way!
If you are unable – or unwilling – to pay the high cost of health insurance, you do have other options to help you have access to affordable health care. And it’s not through health insurance.
How to Access Affordable Healthcare
Health insurance is not the only way to pay for your healthcare costs. Learn how you can save around 30-60% on your healthcare costs here: Why I Ditched Health Insurance to Join a Health Share.
After much research on all of the Health Shares, I ended up writing an article on the Best Health Share Plans. In this post, I narrow it all down and let you know which health share plans I recommend.
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